By Reuby Staviss,

embodyFitness/Boston University Dietetic Intern

Summer is here and that means it’s time for crisp vegetables and refreshing fruit. There is nothing better than digging into a ripe juicy fruit after spending the day in the sun.  

With warm weather comes people’s desires for light, healthy foods that will keep them feeling great all day long. I love getting a nice salad from a cute cafe in the summer months and finding a nice patch of grass or bench to eat it at. We all know how expensive and often unhealthy those salad places can be because of all the added ingredients in their salad dressings. 

Luckily, embodyFitness’ recipe book has got you covered with a variety of healthy and delicious salads and dressings to keep you craving more all summer long. 

This mango, white bean and avocado salad is truly to die for. Dressed with only lime juice and sea salt, there’s no need to worry about those extra calories from salad dressing. This salad is also packed with a wide variety of nutrients, many provided by the mango. 

Mango is packed with vitamin C and vitamin K which are important for the immune system, iron absorption and muscle and bone health. Mango is also rich in antioxidants which helps keep your digestive and heart health in tip top shape. Most importantly for summer, mango, and other tropical fruits are packed with potassium, an electrolyte, that is important for fluid balance, to make sure you stay well hydrated (but don’t forget to drink your water).  Try out the recipe below and let us know what you think! 

Are you making avoidable mistakes that have caused your New Year Resolutions to fall short?

Discover what subtle changes you can make that are proven to help you achieve success.

Many of us set goals in the coldest and darkest month of the year (in the Northern hemisphere), so if you don’t live in or plan on moving to Australia soon, let’s discuss how to get you on track with resolutions and goal setting in an already tough time of year.

If you missed my New Year’s Day presentation on goal setting, here’s a recap!  We think about our outcome, maybe, I want to lose weight.  We even try to be more specific with how much weight and by when and factor out how many pounds that is per week.  However, we don’t always plan out the how.  I’m going to eat healthy is vague and incredibly hard to measure and hold to for accountability.  Spending some time on your step by step plan is crucial for success.  Imagine a surgeon or a pilot without a detailed plan.  Disaster.  Imagine your own day with many moving parts without a plan.  If you have kids with schedules and activities and a family to feed and manage, you may know all too well that if there is no plan, people are late, miss appointments and frequently miss healthy meals.  Manage your individual goals as you would any of these examples to achieve the best possible outcome.  Make a plan! Sure, add in some manifest destiny, but a plan is going to be the foundation or road map for what comes next.

I make it a point to never execute my plan on January 1, but use the month of January to pull together my ideas of what I want to accomplish in the upcoming year.  I use a Vision Board, calendars, benchmarks and lists.  Lots of lists!  Don’t use up valuable mental energy trying to remember where you need to be or what needs to done when you can look at a list!

If you are interested in learning more about goal setting, vision boards, implementing a successful plan for you join us on Thursday, January 28 at 6:30 for FREE webinar on how to create the best plan for you!  Use this link to sign up and we will see you then!

https://www.facebook.com/events/411872816696159